Neonatal imitation: Temporal characteristics in imitative response patterns.

Neonatal imitation has been an area that has attracted intense attention within developmental psychology. Reported here are data from 33 newborn infants (16 girls; mean age: 47 hr) assessed for imitation of tongue protrusion (TP) and mouth opening (MO). The stimuli were presented dynamically, in three 20-second-long gesture modeling intervals, interwoven with three 20-second-long intervals in which the presenter kept a passive face. Imitation of TP emerged among a majority of the infants during the first 60 s of the experiment. In contrast, MO showed a protracted response and a majority exhibited imitation after 60 s. The individual response pattern of the participating infants varied substantially over the course of the experiment. The study provides renewed support for neonatal imitation of MO and TP, and, in addition, suggests that the temporal organization of the responses observed is an important factor to consider, which in turn has methodological and theoretical implications.